


Harry Potter and the King of Night Eternal

by ManMagnificent



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-23
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:21:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21535111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ManMagnificent/pseuds/ManMagnificent
Summary: Harry and his entire class find themselves without explanation in the frozen North. Before they can get their bearings, they're hit by a crowd of Inferi. This is the tale of their survival.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 55





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story will not get involved in the politics of the Seven Kingdoms and it's up in the air whether any known characters from ASOIAF will appear.

**Chapter One**

“Any other time, and this would be beautiful,” said Hermione. The two of us sat on a blanket, our shoulders touching as we looked _out._ I could hear snores, whispered conversations and the weight of the expectation. All of them wanting me to do the impossible.

There were thirty-five of us, the entirety of our class, and we’d spread out in a tight glade surrounded by tall, snow covered trees. We’d cobbled together protective enchantments, shimmering membranes which met to form a misshapen half-sphere; the protective enchantments had been layered with a Warming Charm, which kept back the chill and melted snow as it passed through. Beyond the trees were tall mountain peaks, curling around us on all sides.

“Yeah,” I said with a sigh. I looked to the side. People were in sleeping-bags, huddled in cliques of friend groups and houses. Ron was closest to us and beside him was Lavender, they weren’t in one sleeping bag, but they were so close it was clear they were a couple.

A night had passed and still we were _here,_ without explanation.

My stomach grumbled and Hermione pulled a bit away, giving me a look. As stupid as it was, I blushed.

“I get it,” she said. “I’m hungry too.”

“We’re going to have to do something about that,” I said. “Get food.”

“If only it was as simple as just conjuring something,” Hermione muttered. “Then having magic would be useful.”

“Can’t we use the Summoning Charm?” I asked.

“I mean, if there’s food around, then maybe we’ll be able to summon it,” said Hermione. “But it feels like we’re aren’t anywhere near civilisation. And the Summoning Charm doesn’t work on living things, for a given understanding of living.”

“Then hunting,” I said.

“Do you have the first idea how?” she asked.

I shook my head. “But someone might,” I said.

I looked back. There were people with puffy eyes and others who looked at the brink of tears. From muttered conversations, everyone thought this was Voldemort and I couldn’t blame them. This was how things were nowadays, people just disappeared, being found dead or reappearing being different.

“They need a leader,” Hermione whispered. A strong wind whistled through the trees and in the distance, I heard the caw of a bird. I shoved my hands in my pocket, found that didn’t help and pulled them out again, letting them dangle.

“I’m no leader,” I said.

“You’re the only one we have right now,” she said. “You’re the one who’s used to dealing with stuff like _this.”_

“And I’ve always had you and Ron,” I said. “If anything I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you.”

Hermione gave me a look. “We’ve had this conversation before, you know,” she said. “Before starting Dumbledore’s Army. I won.”

I gave her a small smile. I sighed and pulled away, standing and brushing away the more persistent snow off my clothes. Everyone who was awake looked at me and I saw the hope in their eyes. My eyes passed over each, lingered on Malfoy and his retinue because I still didn’t trust that this wasn’t _him_ and then moved past. Those who were awake started waking those still asleep. It was a ripple, slow moving, stilted because some people needed a few seconds to get their bearings. I waited.

“Okay,” I said. I swallowed, feeling nervous beside myself. “We survived the night. Nothing happened. Voldemort didn’t attack.”

The word, the name, sent a ripple of fear through everyone. They were awake now, paying attention.

“Everything I know about Voldemort says he would have attacked when we first got here if it was him,” I continued. “If it wasn’t him directly, then it would be through his Death Eaters.”

“Then what is this?” Susan Bones asked.

“I don’t know,” I said.

“Why did it happen?” Terry Boot asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t know.”

“Is this because of you?” Terry continued. “Because _he_ wants to kill you? Are we going to die like Cedric Diggory?”

The words were a punch to the gut. It _had_ been my fault he’d died, hadn’t it? Voldemort had been trying to get to me and Cedric had been caught in the middle. Was it the same thing here?

“Lay off it,” Ron said, getting to his feet. He was taller than me, gangly and not at all imposing with his pale face and pink cheeks. But his expression, hard and angry, made Terry step back. “This isn’t Harry. If it’s You-Know-Who, then it’s _him_ and not Harry you should be blaming.”

“What do we do now?” Susan asked.

“First is get food,” I said. “We haven’t eaten since afternoon yesterday. We can conjure water, but Hermione tells me we can’t make food with magic. I was thinking we make a hunting party or something, or we go out looking for berries?”

Neville raised his hand.

“You really don’t have to raise your hand,” I said.

“Just…” said Neville. “Just that maybe we shouldn’t split up. Even if we aren’t as powerful adult wizards, we’ll still fight them better if we’re a group.”

“That’s if the Slytherins don’t curse us in the back,” Kevin Entwhistle muttered.

“Don’ need to curse you in the back when I can just sock you,” Crabbe returned.

I reached into my pocket for my wand, a frown on my face as I watched him, watched all of _them._ Malfoy was working on something for Voldemort, I still didn’t know what but it was worth worrying about. He’d been keeping quiet since all of this happened, not as smug as I thought he’d be from successfully pulling off his plan. But I still felt like he’d try something.

“Let’s _not_ fight,” said Daphne Greengrass. “Please. If we hurt each other. Then…none of us are healers and we’ll be stuck like that.”

“She makes a good point,” said Hermione, her voice as shaky as Daphne’s. I turned and with the corner of my eye caught that wands were already drawn, expressions a mix of scared and angry. My and Hermione’s eyes met and her expression was almost pleading.

I swallowed and pushed everything down. This didn’t feel like Voldemort, but I might be wrong and if I was wrong, then the person who’d know was Malfoy. But if this wasn’t Voldemort and I burned bridges…

“Wands away,” I said, resentment layering my tone. “We shouldn’t fight. This is affecting _all_ of us and if we fight amongst ourselves, we won’t be able to figure out whatever this is.”

People were still scared, still angry, but at least they listened.

“Does anyone have any ideas how we’ll get food?” I asked. “How we’ll hunt and if there are any spells we might use?”

“I have paper,” said Hermione. When this had happened, she’d been walking to the library, ready to do her homework; her rucksack and a few books had been brought with her. “We can make a list, sort out our ideas.”

The process was slow, with a lot of people deciding to take the backseat. First, we started with detailing the spells we were proficient in, spells that might be able to help, then it was figuring out a general path we’d take things.

“Hunting is the smarter option,” said Zacharias Smith. “Looking for edible plants, especially in this weather, will be hard. But if we aren’t splitting up, then even hunting will be harder.”

“We can use Quieting Charms to make sure animals can’t hear us,” said Padma Patil.

“But they’ll still be able to _see_ and smell us,” said Zacharias. “Unless you guys know spells that’ll stop that?”

“There’s the Disillusionment Charm,” said Hermione. “But I’ve only skimmed the theory on how to enchant something that’ll be moving. I’ve never practised. I have nothing on smell, though.”

“The smart thing to do would be to split up into smaller parties,” said Zacharias. “Maybe groups of three or four? Spread out to cover the most ground.”

“Don’t know about the rest of you,” said Ron. “But I’m with Neville on this one and I think splitting up is a bad idea.”

“And it’ll mean we can watch _them,”_ said Kevin, his head titling to the Slytherins. “Right now, they’re hostages as much as—”

Hermione shot me a look.

“Cut it,” I said to Kevin. “Can we split up? But spread out so that we can quickly regroup? Maybe a line or something?”

“It’s better than all of us walking in a big group,” said Zacharias. “And there’s a better chance of us specifically bumping into something.”

“I also think we should look for a river,” said Su Li. When we looked at her, she shrugged. “We won’t have to go _looking_ for fish. We’ll know that they’re always in the river.”

“That is smart,” said Zacharias.

“Okay,” I said, raising my voice so the others are periphery could hear. “We have something of a plan.”

We split apart into eleven groups, with nine having three people while the remaining three had four people. The breaks had been along friend groups, which meant the Slytherins had bunched together, with Malfoy pairing with Crabbe and Goyle, but there wasn’t anything I could say without seeming unfair.

The people that could enchanted clothes with Warming Charms to keep back the cold, Impervious Charm to make sure we wouldn’t get wet and the snow wouldn’t stick, and Quieting Charms so our padding through the snow was silent.

We stretched out in a long line, with each group able to see the groups at either side of it. The walk was slow, daunting because of the wind that still whipped past us, the snow that tried to stick only to slip off and the unceasing hiss of the wind as it passed between trees, surrounding us and making everything feel claustrophobic.

Hermione and Ron were at either of my sides but I couldn’t talk to them with Quieting Charm still active. I could only watch their expressions, Hermione’s eyes darting around worriedly, and Ron trying to put on a brave face even though he was terrified.

We walked for over thirty minutes before sound broke.

“Stop!” I heard and I took up the call for the others to stop. “Break!” came another and I passed it along.

“Finally,” Ron muttered, dispelling the charm around him. “Didn’t know how annoying a Quieting Charm was until now.”

“Yes,” Hermione said, seeming grateful for the chance to speak.

“How are you guys doing?” I asked.

“Still confused,” said Ron. “Are you sure this isn’t You-Know-Who?”

I shook my head. “With everything Dumbledore’s been teaching me about Voldemort, I feel like know him. This isn’t his style.”

“Not to mention that if this _was_ him, then it would mean he bypassed the protective enchantments around Hogwarts,” said Hermione. “Which I find terrifying.”

I nodded.

“But _what_ is this?” said Ron. “And why’d it happen to us?”

“Everything always happens to us,” I said. “It shouldn’t surprise you at this point.”

“You got it in one there, mate,” said Ron. He looked around. “Might as well take a toilet break while I’m at it. Keep an eye on me, would you?”

“Sure,” I said, while Hermione only blushed.

The break lasted a while longer before we set off again. Walking slow, our eyes peeled and keeping a watch both on the ground and in the air. The trees got thicker, making us lose sight of each other for a few seconds, but everyone kept in line. We walked in silence until the treeline cleared in the distance, opening into a large clearing covered in snow. The wind was more frenzied as it moved through the clearing, kicking up snow in a veritable snowstorm.

In the distance I spotted something, two somethings. One was humanoid, while the other was a quadruped. Both were big even with the distance and they were steadily getting bigger.

“Finite Incantatem,” I muttered with an errant wave, before I said, “Stop!” The call was taken up by the others. “Meet!” I added and after the repeat, those closest to us got closer.

“What is it?” said Hermione. “Do you see something?”

“Those blots in the distance,” I said.

“Don’t see anything, mate,” said Ron. I looked and they’d disappeared, an errant bit of snow hiding them.

“I saw something. A person and an animal. They’re big.”

“What’s going on?” said Neville as his group arrived. There others were coming back, but it was taking a while with the distance we’d put between us.

“Wait for the others,” I said, still looking towards the clearing. The wind eased and the figures became clear again. “There!” I said, almost excited.

“People,” said Seamus.

Now that I was looking, I saw more. There were the big figures, but around them were smaller figures, harder to see with the snow in the air.

“Giant?” I said.

“That’s a small giant if it is,” said Ron. “Even with the distance it should be bigger.”

“How do you know what giants look like?” said Sally-Anne Perks.

Ron went red. “It’s…complicated,” he said.

More people arrived.

“I need a count,” I said absently. “Is everyone here? Shout out names of the missing.”

No one was shouted and when I looked back, I noticed that Malfoy and his cronies were still there. They hung back, their expressions worried. I looked forward again, looking at the figures. The largest figure had shifted, getting atop the large animal and they were moving faster in our direction.

“Okay!” I said, having to shout to push past the sound of the wind. “I’ve spotted people. One of them I think is a small giant. We don’t know yet if they’re friends or enemies, but they’re moving quickly in our direction.”

“Do we run!” I heard.

“No,” I cut off, as murmurs started and people pulled back. My eyes flickered to Malfoy and he seemed as scared as everyone else. “We put up protective enchantments—”

“But we can’t be sure that they’ll work,” a voice said in the crowd. “Any wizard will be able to push—”

“Stop!” I said. “Protective enchantments, _now._ If we have to fight, we’ll have to deal with that later, but right now we hide. Disillusionment Charms, Quieting Charms like before. Everyone that can set up a Shielding Charm and make it persist, join in. We’ll spread it out so that we can move in case we have to fight. Get moving _now.”_

There was none of the organisation from when we’d been protecting the glade. Everyone ran out as far as they were comfortable and started waving their wands while muttering spells under their breath. I joined in too, I was good with the Shielding Charm and I started putting that around, going further than the others. I could see the mess when I focused, the bits of shimmering air, the places were snow stuck as it was kept at bay by the Shielding Charms. I had to break those Shielding Charms and apply my own, ones that let the snow pass through without trouble.

The figure was closer by the time we finished, not headed directly for us but for the tree line. So much closer and I could see more detail. The mount was an elephant but _larger,_ it had matted fur, covered over by snow and tusks as long as I was. The rider looked close to human. They were hairy, the same matted quality to their fur and a muscular look that made it hard to tell their gender. They had a heavy brow, large teeth, square teeth and peculiar blue eyes. It wasn’t shaped like Grawp, instead it had short legs and long, muscular arms, one of which carried a large log.

The elephant, a woolly mammoth my mind supplied, had the same peculiar blue eyes.

“That’s not a giant,” said Hermione. “It’s big, but it’s not a giant.”

“Then what is it?” I whispered. It was unneeded with the spells we had around us, but my heart was beating heavily and I felt _hot_ even with my Warming Charm starting to fail.

The pair were a distance away, close to entering the treeline.

Hermione only shrugged. “Maybe an unknown magical creature? We could be in another country.”

The mammoth and the giant didn’t slow as the reached the treeline, they ploughed through, strong enough that they levelled the trees in their way. Screams started and the giant and mammoth turned, awkward with the trees and their bulk, but they succeeded in turning to _us._

***

Shielding Charms, when they were cast by someone with enough skill, could be passed through on one side, while still protecting from the other. I’d read about duels between experts in Charms, people who’d been able to call up a shield and fire off enchantments _through_ their shield. Hermione had mentioned that this was way some people specialised in protective enchantments as fields of work.

We weren’t as lucky. As much as I’d taught those in the DA how to cast Shielding Charms, it had been basic at best because _I’d_ known the basic interpretation. Here, it meant that our shields were as much protection as they were a prison.

People screamed and scrambled back, doing their best to get away from the stampeding mammoth, but there was only so far they could go. People pushed past me, scrambling to move forward while also checking behind them. People tripped and I caught as Morag MacDougal stepped over Trevor Boot.

 _“Impedimenta!”_ I said and the spell hit Anthony before he could do the same. Trevor had enough time to get up and scramble back.

The sound of splitting wood reverberated, combining with the wind and the snow which fell in droves. In seconds since the pair had started bearing down on us, I’d found myself at the head of the group, the one who was the calmest as a beast larger than a train barrelled towards me.

 _“Protego!_ ” I said and I called up another shield. I stepped back, moving towards the others. _“Protego! Protego! Protego!”_

I heard footsteps, then Ron’s voice, quickly followed by Hermione and Neville, then Susan Bones. Our shields were shoddy, making ripples through the air as they met and overlapped.

_“Protego! Protego! Protego!”_

The ground shook, the sound of wood was louder and mounds of snow fell on our shields. A massive tree was levelled, falling against the first network of shields. There was a round of screams as fierce, red webs stretched out across, veins that got thicker as the tree settled. But the shield held.

The mammoth and its rider hit the first wave of shields and _easily_ snapped through them. Its momentum slowed as it crashed through the second set of shields then the third, the fourth until it had stopped at the fifth. The giant stood and leapt off, crashing through the last of our shields and landing in our midst.

It swung its club— _“Wingardium Leviosa!”_ —and the club swung above our heads, the giant losing its grasp as Ron directed the club to swing up.

 _“Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!”_ I added, stepping back and getting my distance. I wasn’t the only one, spells flew above my head, hitting the giant without damage, and to make things worse the mammoth was bearing down on us.

“Scatter!” I said, but things had already fallen apart. The Shielding Charms at our rear had been undone and people were running. There were people helping, attacking the giant and the mammoth, but there weren’t enough. There certainly weren’t thirty-five.

Shields flickered into and out of existence as the mammoth thrashed, swinging long tusks as it tried to gouge anyone it could. Dean, closest to the mammoth, fell and scrambled to get away.

 _“Confringo_!” I heard and the spell, a bright orange, flew over heads and hit the mammoth in the face. The spell exploded and the mammoth was immediately engulfed by an expanding fire.

Seamus got close, pulling Dean to his feet while they were covered by shields.

The giant lunged forward, moving through a layer of shields. It swung an arm at me— _“Protego!”_ —that was blocked by the shield. Ron dropped the giant’s club over its head and the thing stumbled forward, forcing me to jump to the side to get out of the way of its squat legs.

“Harry!” I heard.

There were ten of us fighting, with the rest having gotten their distance, firing when they could. The mammoth was still alive, thrashing at no one in particular; the fire had spread over its entire body and as it flailed, crashing into trees, the fire spread.

The giant had succeeded in grabbing its club out of the air and it swung it towards Ron.

_No._

He pulled up his wand, started a spell, but it didn’t conjure fast enough. The club met Ron’s side, sweeping him off his feet and sending him spiralling through the air.

_No._

I heard a scream and then screamed words.

_“Bombarda! Bombarda! Bombarda!”_

Three spells. The first hit the giant in its chest and it caved; another at the shoulder, taking out a chunk of dried flesh; and the last hit the side of the giant’s face, taking out part of its eye and exposing its brain. Even so, the giant didn’t care, it swung its club again, but the thing exploded before it could hit, showering me in splinters.

 _“Incendio,”_ I heard and a stream of fire flew, hitting the giant in the chest. It stumbled back as the fire caught, quickly spreading up its torso and to its face, down its legs.

With its face gone, the giant flailed, no longer attacking with purpose.

I scrambled to my feet, backing away and taking the long way around, running in the direction Ron had been thrown. The mammoth had fallen, its body still burning.

I spotted Hermione and Lavender, kneeling on the ground and I ran close, my legs giving out as I neared. Ron was still alive but barely, his breathing short and laboured, his eyes wide and red. His right side had been caved in and his body twisted with how he’d landed.

Hermione was in tears, her wand moving and the words _Episky_ being said over and over. I could hear the fixes, the ribs that snapped back into place but Ron wasn’t breathing any better. Lavender only cried, muttering no under her breath while she brushed Ron’s hair.

I scrambled up and followed Hermione’s lead.

 _“Episky,”_ I said over and over, but I wasn’t sure if the spell was working and Ron wasn’t looking any better.

“’Moine,” Ron muttered before his breathing stopped.

The world stopped.

Sound and colour died.

My heart struggled to beat as a hand squeezed tight against it.

My mind stopped, tried to run and tripped, started again only to stop. Nothing made sense because this couldn’t be real and Ron couldn’t be dead in front of me.

My mind sputtered and then started, settling.

I stood, scanned and spotted _them_. Everyone was closer but they spread as I started forward. Malfoy must have spotted something because his wand came up at the same moment as my own.

The shield flickered into existence as my Disarming Charm flew true. The spell hit and rebounded, hitting Crabbe hard enough that he was flung off his feet.

“Harry!” I heard Neville say.

Goyle pulled up his wand, but my spell had already left. A stunner flew and hit him in the chest, sending him tumbling back.

“Potter are you crazy!” Malfoy said, as three stunners hit his shield. He was forced to jump to the side as the last spell went through, crashing into Pansy who’d gotten too close. “Potter calm down.”

“You did this!” I said. “Did you think I didn’t notice! You skulking around! Trying to get Voldemort into Hogwarts. What you did to Katie!”

“I have no— _Protego!”_

My Disarming Jinx was absorbed by his shield.

“Don’t lie to me!” I said.

Malfoy stopped, looking around. Crabbe didn’t have his wand and Goyle was unconscious. The other Slytherin weren’t helping, keeping their distance. The others were either watching or had their wands out and mean expressions.

“You almost killed Katie!” I said. “You’ve been trying to kill Dumbledore!”

Malfoy’s expression flickered.

“Tell me the truth! Or I’ll curse it out of you.”

Malfoy went pale, his eyes red. He looked around and he clamped up, _sneered._

“I have—”

 _“Crucio.”_ The spell landed and Malfoy dropped, his body seizing before it writhed. A short scream escaped him. People around him scrambled back and I heard a few screams but they were so far away; someone spoke, said my name but I didn’t listen.

 _“Expelliarmus!”_ I stumbled forward and my wand was wrenched from my hand. I turned around, my expression twisted in a snarl and I found Neville bearing down on me, his expression defiant.

I swallowed, looked around, looked at the shocked expressions, people clustering together, how they looked scared of _me_ and I walked away, going back to Ron. I knelt beside Hermione who still muttered under her breath, ineffectually. I took her hand and stopped her.

She shook her head and then broke into tears.

***

“We’re going to have to bury him,” I said, the words a whisper.

Hermione’s eyes were puffy. Leanne Moon was on the other side of Ron’s body, hugging Lavender who was still sobbing.

Hermione shook her head. “They were Inferi,” she said, her voice without inflection. “It’s the reason they weren’t reacting to our spells.”

“You think this is Voldemort?” I said.

“I don’t know what this is,” she said. “But…I’m scared that if we bury Ron, they’ll turn him into _that._ I’m going to transfigure him, keep him close. But I don’t think I’ll have the skill to undo it properly.”

She looked at me, almost for permission.

“Do it,” I said.

“Do what?” said Lavender, a sob in her voice. “Defile his body? I don’t know how it works in the Muggle world, but changing someone isn’t something you do all willy-nilly.”

“Lavender,” Leanne said.

“I’ll be keeping his body safe so he isn’t turned into _that,_ you bimbo,” Hermione said.

“Bimbo?” Lavender said. “You always _were_ jealous of our love. You wanted him—”

Hermione raised her wand hand and I pulled it down before she could do anything she’d regret.

“We’ve known Ron the longest,” I said. “We’re his best-friends. We know what he’d like better than you.” Lavender swallowed, still shocked by the outburst. “Do it, Hermione.”

She nodded.

“Harry,” said Neville. I looked up. He was flanked at either side by Seamus and Dean. He had my wand in his hand and I noticed as he fidgeted with it, wanting to give it to me but not going through. His expression was a mix of cold and sympathetic. I looked a little away. “We’re going to have to move soon. The people are getting closer. Su did a count and she lost her place at seventy, there might be more than that.”

I nodded.

“Malfoy?” I said.

“He’s okay. He’s with the Slytherins,” said Seamus. “We took his wand. Crabbe and Goyle too, just to be safe.”

I nodded again, feeling weightless. Things still didn’t make sense. It felt so eerily similar to Sirius and how he’d been pushed through the archway. How it felt that he was just on the other side waiting to jump up. But as I looked at Ron’s body, watching as it shrunk, reality seemed to settle.

The fire had been put out before it could spread. The giant and the mammoth were all but husks now.

“We’ll wait for Hermione to get done before we leave,” said Neville. “Maybe keep your distance from the Slytherins?”

I nodded.

Hermione turned Ron into a necklace that she put around her neck. She gave me Ron’s wand which I put it in my pocket. As a group we started walking, parallel the treeline. We kept glancing back as we watched the people disappearing into the distance.

We’d started moving in the early morning and we were still walking by afternoon, stomach grumbling and the only water we had, the water we could conjure. We rested for an hour and started moving again without any real direction until we came by a thin stream.

I watched listlessly as the others spoke, got a plan together and started conjuring nets. They broke some of the ice and lined the net along the stream. Others started putting up protective enchantments, taking more care than the hobbled mess that had gotten Ron killed.

It was an hour before the first few fish were caught, but thankfully, the stream and the warmth attracted a few animals. Pansy Parkinson managed to stun a deer and they made a messy job of skinning it before it was cooked.

We ate strips of meat, dry from the fire and dull from not having salt, but none of us complained.

“…we’re going to have to switch watch,” I heard the others speaking. “If those things find us, then we’ll need warning.”

“I know the Caterwauling Charm,” said Megan Jones. “But it’s finicky. A bird or an animal might set it off.”

“Better we just have people watch,” said Susan Bones. “That way they don’t know that we know.”

“And the charm might draw them close,” said Neville. They shared nods. “What are we going to do about Draco Malfoy?”

“What can we do?” said Susan Bones. They paused, no doubt looking at me and Hermione, huddled beside the stream on separate sleeping bags. “Do you think Harry’s right? He cast an Unforgiveable Curse.”

Neville sighed. “Harry’s dealt with a lot. He’s…he’s used to stuff like this, but you can’t be used to people dying. We—”

Hermione broke into a sob and they stopped talking.

I took her hand, closing it tight against mine. She squeezed back.

I couldn’t sleep. My dreams blended into a mess that saw me trying and failing to save Ron, Sirius and Cedric. The giant was front and centre, but it turned into Voldemort who looked down with glowing red eyes, bearing down on me.

 _“Harry Potter,”_ Voldemort hissed and my scar flared.

I shot awake, the sound of trickling water filling the air. I looked around; someone must have conjured balls of light at some point because they bobbed in the air. I looked around, spotting three groups of two keeping watch at various spots around the perimeter.

I looked for someone I knew personally, but there were none. I chose to stay back, finding a tree away from everyone else before getting back. There were remnants of fire in the middle and a cauldron was struck by a series of sticks over the fire.

Magic could be temperamental at the best of times. Very likely they’d thought it better to not enchant an already conjured object.

One of the people from the groups stood after talking to their friends, then they walked over to me.

“Hey Harry,” said Michael Corner, giving me a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. He stood straight and had his wand out. I only nodded. “Sorry about what happened to Weasley. I know he was your best-mate—”

“What time is it, do you know?”

“Um…” He shrugged. “We’re the third watch,” he said. “Parvati transfigured an hourglass with two-hour sand and we started watch around sundown, so…around midnight?”

“Did anything happen while I was asleep?”

He shook his head. “Neville and the others kept things good. There was a fight between Kevin and Theodore, but that ended quickly. Both of them don’t have their wands until they learn how to behave.”

I nodded again. I really didn’t know why I’d wanted to know. Maybe I’d wanted _anything_ to do, but the information didn’t really help.

“What’s the plan?” I asked. “What did you guys decide on?”

“That we’ll move along the creek,” he said. “We’re bound to run into _anyone,_ right? Hopefully it’s the good guys instead of whoever set those Inferi after us.”

“Yeah,” I said and sighed. The image of Ron ran through my mind, the club swinging through the air, catching him at the side and throwing him up. “Thanks.”

I turned back to where I’d been and found Hermione sobbing again, her hand closed tightly against Ron. I sat beside her and she sniffled, trying to regain composure.

Time passed and people shifted, guards switching. I felt the eyes on me and didn’t look back, only keeping an eye on the stream, watching the net that had been put up as it wriggled with caught fish.

“Hey! Hey guys!”

My heart jumped to my throat, beating heavily. Ron’s wand found my hand before I found my feet. Hermione scrambled to get up, her own wand out and held shakily in hand.

Others were getting up, looking in the direction of the should.

It was Millicent Bulstrode with Pansy Parkinson at her side, both standing back from the edge of the enchantments.

Beyond stood a being: Twice at tall as the tallest amongst us, yet not so large as the giant; they were gaunt, sharp cheeks that would have been beautiful had they not been so _other._ The being had skin as pale as snow and hair that was paler still; they wore mirror-like armour which bled into the surroundings, akin to a Bedazzling Jinx. In their right hand, they lazily held a sword twice the length of their arm, made of the same material as their armour.

But the eyes were what sent shivers up my spine.

They were as blue as those of the giant and the mammoth, but these had _intellect_ behind them. The blue eyes, shining like fire in the darkness, moved past us, stopping to take us in.

“I thought we were Disillusioned,” someone muttered.

“We _are,”_ was the return, but the being still found way to look _through_ the charm to take us in individually.

Slowly, they brought up their sword, running it through the air over the shield. We watched as the shield strained, the sword, made of solid ice, was so sharp that it left a vivid mark against the shield. With each second the mark grew, becoming spidery webs that slowly spread across the surface of our enchantments.

“Give me my wand, Neville!” I heard Kevin say. “Give it to me _now!”_

Neville moved quickly, pulling out wands and throwing them. To Kevin, to Theodore Nott, and to Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. He pulled out my and I summoned it with Ron’s, quickly switching wands. People moved back, a tide that took them close to the stream, further away from the border of the enchantments.

“Do you know what that is?” I asked Hermione. People moved closer to us as a result and sometimes it was hard to see the being.

Hermione shook her head. “It’s not a being I’ve ever seen,” she said, her voice reedy. “It looks close to a Veela, but it reminds me a lot of mythological faeries.”

“It’s got the same eyes as…” My voice broke.

“Yes,” said Hermione.

 _“Depulso!”_ I said with a flick. The Ice Faerie’s sword was ripped out of its grasp, sent spinning head over heel into the trees beyond. The Ice Faerie looked at their hand, then back at us before it turned and tromped away, the sound of ice cracking, filling the air.

“Okay!” said Neville. “We’ve gotta decide now. Do we stand and fight whatever that was, or do we run?”

“We’re not even sure if it’s alone,” a voice said. “It could have brought the others.”

“And how could it see us through the Disillusionment Charms?” another said.

“We’ve gotta run,” I heard. “Before it comes back. We don’t know what that is. We don’t know the magic it has.”

“But where will we run?”

Quickly things descended into chaos, all while the spidery web continued to grow across our shields, getting thicker where the damage pooled, the red of the webs getting brighter.

 _A lot of you ran when you could have fought,_ the thought flickered through my mind. It was seductive, the thought of watching them dealing with all of this on their own, just watching them get hurt like Ron had gotten hurt.

“The weather’s getting worse,” Hermione said.

I looked up and beyond the shield more wind was blowing in, pushing in a thick tide of snow that melted before it could pass into our sanctuary. Our shield kept the wind at bay, but I could see as the spidery red lines got worse, spreading out faster.

“Shields won’t hold,” I muttered and Hermione nodded.

“Guys!” a voice said. “The shields!”

That stopped the chatter. Everyone looked up.

“We have to burn the forest,” I heard Seamus say. “These are Inferi, right? They burn quickly. So we have to burn the forest to cover our backs, then we run.”

A section of shield sputtered out and with it our defence against the cold. Wind and snow flooded in, spreading through our sanctuary and lowering visibility. I caught sight of a dark form moving at a run, its blue eyes piercing the darkness.

“Trouble!” I said, even though a dark part of me wanted to stay quiet, for them to deal with it instead of having the option to run.

The others took up the call and shields were raised. Others moved to the back, slipping as they crossed the stream. I caught sight of Anthony Goldstein waving his wand and undoing the rear of our shield. Wind found another point of entry and it became harder still to see.

I heard heavy foot falls, the sound of metal against metal then a spurt of light before fire bloomed. The Inferius thrashed, its arms flailing all while getting closer to _us._ A spell knocked the thing off its feet and it struggled to get up.

More beacons of blue eyes appeared, but they hadn’t had the luck of the first Inferius. Our shield burst with life as they hit, exacerbating the spidery cracks.

I took Hermione’s hand and turned with the runners, pulling her so we could cross the stream.

_Get away._

I was supposed to be brave, to be a Gryffindor. But I’d already lost so many people that the thought of losing Hermione wasn’t something I wanted to even consider.

Hermione kept me from bashing into the slippering rocks as I suddenly pitched forward. We continued, looking back when flashes of light sparked. The others were shouting, spells cutting through the air, eliciting bangs or cracks as they met their marks.

Hermione and I reached the rear where the shield had been undone and we stepped through, running into a thick snowstorm.

Everyone became dark forms. Some were friends, the light of their wands giving them off, while others were foe, with their blue eyes giving them away.

_“Incendio!”_

The tree ahead of us burst into flames, the detonation coming with a flash of light and a wave of snow. Hermione disentangled her hand from me and said a spell, making the fire bigger, hotter and brighter. Gobs of the fire fell from the tree like water, quickly melting snow and setting the ground below alight.

Some of the gobs caught three Inferi that had been running towards us, rusted swords drawn.

We changed direction, running away from the fire and making sure that we weren’t headed back to the others. A form appeared, crashing into me so hard we both fell. I had my wand ready, but I spotted a shock of blonde hair, then the form quickly getting to their feet and bolting.

“Hermione!” I said. In the darkness she’d missed my fall and continued running.

_“Confringo! Confringo!”_

I turned in the direction, spotted blooms of fire and writhing forms.

 _“Incendio,”_ I said and an Inferius, tall and broad, almost entirely bone, and carrying a large sword, bared down on Hermione. The spell hit and the Inferius burst into flame, losing all composure.

“Seamus! Seamus!” I heard Dean’s voice. “Seamus where are you! Sea—”

I caught up with Hermione, her hair a mess and tears at her eyes.

“Harry,” she said, relief palpable.

“We have to run,” I said. “Get away.”

She nodded and we took off, moving slower than before, keeping an eye out. More fires appeared, beacons against the snowstorms. I caught flashes of light at times, but they weren’t as clustered. We’d been spread out, taken apart by enemies and what was worse I didn’t know how many we’d lost.

Hermione, though, was still close. I could see the darkness of her form, feel the warmth that ran off her from her Warming Charm and I could hear her heavy footsteps.

Another form appeared, darker and with no blue eyes. Even so our wands were pointed, preparing for the worse. Blaise Zabini resolved, his clothing ripped, his eye bruised and a limp visible in how he moved. He was breathing hard, the whites of his eyes visible even in the low light.

“Potter,” he said, incensed. “You _ran.”_ There was accusation in the words and my mouth twisted. “You’re supposed to be brave but you _ran.”_

“I’m not losing more friends tonight,” I muttered.

“But you’ve _lost_ people. Longbottom was hurt the last time I saw him. Thomas was cut in half—”

“And did _you_ help them!” I asked. “Or did you expect _me_ to do it? To save all of you? To put myself in danger while the rest of you cower?”

“I fought!” said Zabini.

“And I did too! And Ron died! I’m not putting my friends lives on the line for people that think about running first! They won’t be your fodder!”

“Harry,” Hermione said, taking my arm. There was no emotion in her voice. “Ron…He…he died _helping_ people. He wouldn’t want us to run, not when our friends are hurting.”

I took a breath and then quickly let it out, almost slumping.

 _“Fine,”_ I muttered. “But stay close, okay?”

Hermione nodded.

I looked around, the darkness was oppressive and the chill was starting to reach through our personal Warming Charms. I couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of me, couldn’t see where the others were. There was only darkness and the ever-expanding plumes of fire.

A spell flashed and I started to move. Hermione followed and I heard Zabini doing the same not a short while after.

On running back, there were more Inferi, carrying swords or wearing armour, but even with the protection they died quickly to fire. We reached the combatant. Susan Bones stood over Ernie MacMillan and Sally-Anne Perks. The latter was still breathing, but the former was pale.

I caught the flicker, the eyes opening and revealing blue eyes. Ernie was behind Susan, who was scouting instead of focusing on those behind her. She missed as he got up.

“Susan!” said Hermione, but I was already acting

 _“Petrificus Totalus!”_ I said as Ernie threw himself at Susan. The spell caught and the lunge was impeded, throwing him forward. He crashed into Susan, pitching both forward. Susan let out a short, desperate scream as she scrambled to push Ernie away.

“How?” said Zabini. “No spell was cast to wake him. Who’s doing this?”

“Hermione,” said Susan, desperate. “Do you know any healing spells? Sally was hit by a sword. I staunched the bleeding but she’s too pale.”

Hermione’s hand went to Ron, clutching the necklace. Her eyes watered as she shook her head.

“I’m sorry, I— We never had to learn them for classes and I didn’t _think—”_

“It’s not your fault, Hermione,” I said. I looked around. We were closer to the burning sections of trees now, but we were also closer to the thick of it. Every few seconds there would appear an Inferius, most of them were older, but a few times I spotted kids running through the darkness, younger and shorter than even _us._

“Does any of you know how to enchant fire to move?” said Zabini. “Maybe in the form of an animal?” He was looking at Hermione as she said. “That way we wouldn’t have to fire the spells at them.”

Hermione shook her head, looking the worse for it.

I glared at Zabini and he cottoned on, stepping back.

Ernie was still on the ground, caught by my spell and Sally steadily got seconds closer to same fate.

 _“Petrificus Totalus,”_ I said and Sally seized.

“What the fuck, Harry?” said Susan. “You could have hurt her.”

“We can’t help her,” I whispered. She was unconscious but there was the chance she could still hear us, that I’d waked her up with the spell. “She’s going to die and she’ll be the same as Ernie.”

An explosion detonated in the distance, a gout of fire spearing up into the sky in a long column before disappearing.

“Um…I want to try something,” Hermione said. “This storm, if it’s a spell or magic, then.” She took a breath and pointed up. _“Finite Incantatem!”_

Nothing happened. She visibly slumped.

“I thought it would work,” she said.

“That spell that Sirius cast,” I said. “The one to move people. Do you remember it?”

“Yes!” said Hermione and she caught on to what I meant. She pointed at Ernie and Sally, muttered and both rose into the air. “I won’t be able to use my wand while I’ve got the spell running. I could enchantment them to follow behind us, but that’ll take a few minutes.”

 _“Confringo!”_ said Zabini. The spell hit a blue-eyed form, tearing chunks of armour and the fire catching their skin. They were immediately engulfed.

“More wands are better,” I said. “You do the enchantment and we’ll keep an eye out, hopefully whoever’s fighting is able to hold on.”

Hermione nodded and started working.

***

“The storm’s starting to clear up,” said Kevin. We were further back; hours had passed and we’d been forced backed by the spreading fires.

We’d only succeeded in finding Daphne Greengrass and Kevin Entwhistle and counting a few more dead bodies in our number. Hermione had tried to transfigure them into smaller shapes, but the magic that had turned them into Inferi resisted transfiguration. Sally had died and her eyes had turned blue, but thankfully the Fully-Body Bind held.

“The fires have gotten worse, too,” said Kevin. “Feels like the entire forest is burning.”

“So many dead,” Daphne whispered.

We’d counted seven people dead for sure, with the rest unknown: Michael Corner, Lisa Turpin, Mandy Brocklehurst, Pansy Parkinson, Zacharias Smith, and Vincent Crabbe. Then there were stories, the glimpses that everyone had seen. Zabini mentioning Dean, Daphne had mentioned seeing Neville with a bloody face, and Lavender had been dragging Leanne Moon behind her.

“If there was anyone still here, they’ll have moved back,” Susan said. “We should go back to the stream, keep to the plan of finding people, a town or something.”

They weren’t talking to me directly, but they were talking _at_ me, waiting for me to respond.

I couldn’t, my head felt like it wasn’t connected to my shoulders, giving everything a heady feel. A large part of me couldn’t shake the feeling that this might be a dream. So much had happened that didn’t make sense and it felt right to think that this all might be a dream.

But seeing Hermione’s broken expression grounded me a little.

 _If nothing else, then make sure that_ she _survives._

“Yeah,” I said.

With that, we started moving. A slow trudge that had to go wide because the fires were still spreading, dark smoke rising, mixing with the snow and falling back down again as soot. Thankfully, the wind had started to die down and that meant no smoke moved in our direction.

We found the stream and it was wider, running faster. We moved slowly at its bank; wands held high to light our way forward.

At some point, the sun started to rise and that felt easier, like the threat could be kept at bay. But there were still the bodies, bound and floating behind us, and those were a sign of the reality of our situation.

“Break,” said Kevin and we stopped.

I transfigured a rock into a net, lined it along the river and we waited. We caught a few fish, messily gutted them, the skewered them over a fire.

“Let’s rest for a few hours,” said Susan. “Take turns keeping watch.”

“I’ll put up protective enchantments,” said Hermione.

“I’ll take first watch,” I said.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

“How’s your leg?” Daphne asked, her voice soft. The stream had gotten thinner, the ground rockier and a gentle slope had started to rise. We’d been climbing for the past hour, not sure where we were going as the sun lit the sky in orange light.

Hermione was at my side, still harrowed and scared. We’d slept and ate, worried that the Inferi would attack us in the night and it hadn’t happened, but we still hadn’t come across any people or any of the others. Kevin stuck closer to us than Zabini and Daphne, his wand out and his head turning at every small sound. While Susan bridged the gap between the two groups.

Zabini, I noticed, had trailed behind, not so far back that it was noticeable, but still some distance when there was security in numbers.

“I’m fine,” he said. He met my eyes and his hand closed tighter around his wand. Behind him, hovering above the ground, were seven Inferi, our _classmates,_ all still bound by my Full-Body Bind. All with those bright blue eyes. “Just a bit of pain.”

“Maybe we should rest,” said Daphne, increasing her volume so we could hear. “The sun will be setting soon anyway. We could just set up camp.”

“The less time we spend in darkness the better,” said Hermione, her voice soft.

We each had our roles and we went about them. Kevin was pretty good at conjuring a net and he did that, lining it along the stream; Hermione added to my enchantments, putting up Quieting and Disillusionment Charms; Zabini started the fire, while Daphne blew up the food she’d shrunk and stuffed in her pocket; and Susan and I started putting up the protective enchantments, layering them so we had ample protection.

We ate unsalted food, watched as golden light hit the sky and the sun started to disappear behind a mountain range, stretching long shadows that covered our path of forest in darkness.

“We should have more of a plan,” said Kevin. He was looking at me, almost expectant.

 _What you mean is that_ I _should have the plan and the rest of you should follow it,_ I thought. Uncharitable, but I didn’t care. Because the last time I’d had a plan, to stand and fight, people had run and Ron…

Hermione was close to me. She was usually the one who came up with plans, and I’d be the one to take over when things went to hell. But she wasn’t in the right space.

 _If Ron were here, he_ _’d know the right thing to say to bring levity to the situation,_ the thought came and it left me emptier.

“Maybe we should focus on finding the others?” said Daphne. It sounded a lot like a question. She looked to Zabini for help.

“Isn’t that what we’ve been trying to do?” said Kevin. “It’s why we’re sticking to the stream.”

“But we’ve been moving away,” said Daphne. “From where we were attacked. If we were really looking for them…”

“That’d be suicide,” Kevin said, his eyes wide and face pale. “The Inferi are there. If we go there and there’s no one else they’ll swarm us.”

“Still means we haven’t been looking at the others,” Susan muttered.

“Maybe…” Hermione stopped. She shook her head. “It would probably be dangerous.”

“What were you thinking?” I asked.

“The Protean Charm,” she said. “I can maybe enchant a few stones with them and banish them all over the place. Maybe someone from the DA will see them and know what it means. Then we’ll be able to communicate.”

“Protean Charm?” said Zabini.

“It’s a charm that’ll mean changes to one object are reflected to another,” said Hermione. “I can write a message and it’ll appear on something else.”

“Oh, I see,” said Zabini.

“You see what?” said Kevin.

“If there are Death Eaters out there, then they can use the Protean Charm to see where we are,” I put in. “It could lead us into a trap.”

“If Death Eaters were looking for us then they would have found us by now,” said Daphne. “They’d use broom. I…I think you were right Harry and this isn’t You-Know-Who.”

“Unless he’s doing all of this for the fun of it,” Kevin muttered. He looked down. “The guy’s the _ultimate_ evil. Perhaps seeing us suffer brings him joy.”

Something I hadn’t thought of, and something I wasn’t sure made a lot of sense. I thought back to the pieces Dumbledore, of Tom as a young boy and him growing up. All the things he’d done because he’d been upset or bored.

I could see him doing this. Forcing me to watch as people I knew died around me. All while showing me that I was weaker than him.

“The question is,” said Zabini. “Is it a risk worth taking?”

“We’re stronger in numbers,” said Susan.

I started to snort and I stopped, but it had already been too far. Zabini scowled, while Daphne and Kevin looked guilty. Hermione’s expression twisted through a series of emotions I couldn’t quite read before her hand moved to Ron. Susan only frowned at me, pity in her eyes.

“We’re stronger with numbers if we’re being _led,_ _”_ said Zabini.

I looked at him then looked away. I didn’t have the time for that, for him trying to make me feel guilty.

“We should do it,” I said. Because I didn’t like having to think about all the unknowns. All the people that could be dead.

“I’ll get started,” said Hermione.

“Can you teach me the charm?” said Daphne. “The more people that do, the more objects we can enchant.”

Hermione smiled and I saw a bit of her strength come back as she taught Daphne, then me and finally Kevin the Protean Charm. Zabini kept trying to conjure fire in the form of an animal and Susan waved her wand while concentrating into space, trying to teach herself non-verbal magic.

Night fell and Kevin took first watch, then Hermione, Susan, Daphne until Zabini and finally me.

When morning came, we had over thirty rocks enchanted with the Protean Charm, though the ones that had been enchanted by someone other than Hermione were odd. With some there was lag before the message was transferred, while others glowed with brilliant colours every time a message was sent.

“It’s better that way,” said Hermione. “Attention grabbing. I just hope the enchantment won’t fade.”

We banished the stones in random directions, watching as they sailed over trees.

“Maybe we should send sparks up in the air too,” said Kevin.

“Sparks could just call the Inferi to us,” said Zabini. “It’s why we didn’t do that in the first place.”

“Well…it’s day, innit? We’ll see them coming and pick them off. What do you think, Harry? Hermione?”

“It’s too dangerous,” said Hermione. “Sorry.”

“I think we should do it,” I said. Kevin grinned, shooting Zabini a smug look. “More people will see and not just wizards.”

We kept following the stream, going past rockier ground and more densely packed with trees. In the place where there were clearings, we’d fire up sparks, watched the horizon for any answer before we kept moving. Hermione and Daphne kept checking their Protean enchanted rocks for any answers to their messages but there was nothing.

We walked until noon, when we stopped on spotting a deer running through the forest. The animal looked spooked, running heedless through the trees, only paying enough attention that it didn’t get too close to us as well.

“Wands out,” I said, but it wasn’t needed. Everyone already had their wand in hand and all of us were waiting to see what was chasing the deer. Kevin, I noticed, had stepped back, putting him at the rear of our group.

 _Not someone to trust in a fight,_ a part of me thought sardonically.

We spotted them an instant later. There were six of them, wolves as large as horses, running in a wide formation that put two of them close to us.

“Werewolves,” Kevin squeaked and he stepped back.

“Don’t run!” I barked and the wolves noticed. “Stand and _fight!_ _”_

Kevin stopped, his eyes wide and face pale. His wand was raised but it was shaky.

The wolves slowed, teeth bared, snarls rippling through the air. One barked and that slowed the others who moved to surround us.

“Not Werewolves,” Hermione whispered, her voice terrified.

“Then that makes this easier,” I said. “Get ready for shields. _Punctum!_ _”_

There was a bang and one of the wolves yelped, jumping back in a start. The others moved forward as cries of Protego shot through the air. Shields came into existence, small cracks forming as the wolves bashed against them, claws swiping for traction against the slippery surface.

Surprise flickered on the wolves’ expressions as they moved back as one, some trying to flank us. I turned— _“Bombarda!”—_ and hit the ground just ahead of the wolf. Dirt and debris surged into the air and the wolf yelped, forced to suddenly stop and change direction.

 _“Stupefy!”_ I heard and I heard the drop of a heavy body.

I wanted to turn, but I couldn’t. I kept watch on the wolves as they moved back, getting more distance while not retreating. Two seemed scared, their heads down and eyes wide, but the others had their teeth bared, snarls ripping through their throats.

They still wanted to go on the attack.

 _“Avis,”_ Hermione said and the spell came with the bang of gunfire. Birds, over a dozen, flew into the air, over our shields and attacked the wolves. They tried to bite and swipe the birds out of the air but there were too many and the birds had no sense of self-preservation. They went for the eyes, clawing and pecking at them.

I ran past our shields, Susan following behind me and we fired stunner after stunner, hitting three wolves before the rest decided it was easier to run than go on the attack.

We waited a few seconds after the wolves had run, looking around and expecting the worst not to find it. All through the fight my heart was almost at my throat, but that was rapidly fading as the sense of danger disappeared.

Four wolves, all still breathing but unconscious.

“These are too big to be normal wolves,” said Susan.

“Are you sure they aren’t Werewolves?” Kevin asked.

“For one there’s no full moon,” said Hermione. “And Werewolves don’t look like that. They have longer arms and legs, they’re usually thinner, and even if they’re quadrupeds they can move pretty easily on their hind limbs.”

“You know a lot about wolves,” said Susan. “And about giants. I noticed that with Ron.”

“This might be a clue,” I said, ignoring the statement. “To where we are. Has anyone heard about wolves like this anywhere in the world?”

“I have,” said Zabini. “In history books about animals of long ago. They’re supposed to be extinct, though.”

“Dire wolves!” Hermione said. “Like sabre-toothed tigers.”

“Yes,” said Zabini.

Hermione frowned. “Could it be that wizards saved them somehow?” she said.

“Wizards wouldn’t do that. Maybe Newt Scamander and people like him,” said Susan. “But they’d probably keep them in a reserve or something.”

“Then this doesn’t make sense. I thought we might be in Canada or Russia, but even they don’t have—”

“Russia?” I said.

“It’s the only places that come to mind for the climate and animals we’ve seen,” she said. “But it still doesn’t make how Voldemort would be able to get us here, especially outside of Hogwarts.”

“What are we going to do with these?” said Daphne. “They could wake up, chase the others…”

“We should kill them,” said Kevin. “It’s the safer thing to do.”

“If we kill them they’ll become zombies like that elephant,” said Susan.

“Mammoth,” Hermione corrected in a whisper.

“If we don’t do anything, they may hunt us again. It’s the safer thing to do,” said Kevin.

“We can transfigure them,” said Zabini. “Then we can use them if we’re being attacked and overwhelmed.”

“I’d feel more comfortable with that,” said Hermione. “The thought of just killing them…”

“Yeah,” said Kevin. “That too. As long as they’re out of the picture, you know?”

He looked at me for permission. I looked at Susan and she shrugged. I shrugged too and that was enough for us to move forward. Hermione, Kevin and I did the transfiguration, turning the dire wolves into totems we put into our pockets.

We moved forward again, firing sparks into the air at intervals. We stopped and ate, then moved again, and it was near evening as we fired the last of our sparks for the day that there was a return flicker, far into the brush, but closer than we’d expected.

***

“It’s too dangerous,” Kevin said first.

“There’s still some daylight,” said Susan. “And having the numbers will help us if anything happens.”

“Not like they did with the giant,” I muttered. I hadn’t meant to, I really hadn’t, but it irked me that Susan kept harping on about that like it actually helped when crisis hit.

“Harry,” Hermione said, her voice almost breaking.

I swallowed, my hold getting tighter around my wand.

“Sorry,” I said. “Just…Kevin’s right. We shouldn’t be taking risks when we don’t have to. We don’t know if those are our friends and even if they’re are, we’ll have an easier time finding them in the morning.”

“Or we could lose them because they’ll keep moving,” said Zabini.

“You have an injured leg,” said Kevin, affronted. “You can’t even walk, and if it’s dark out you might get hurt worse or something.”

“Don’t talk like you care about me,” said Zabini. _“Coward.”_

He said that to Kevin, but I had the strongest sense he was talking to me. I swallowed, felt as my shoulders squared, but I watched Kevin to make sure he wouldn’t curse. He didn’t. He only frowned, his cheeks going red before he turned and walked away.

“That was needlessly cruel,” said Daphne.

Zabini sat back, mouth a line.

“Harry,” said Susan. She seemed a little distracted. As though she wanted to go talk to Kevin and she was holding herself back. She took a breath and braced herself. “What happened to Weasley was awful—”

“It was avoidable,” I said and it caught me by surprise. It wasn’t a shout but there was so much acid in my voice that Susan flinched, Daphne looked down and Zabini looked at me defiantly. “But people _ran._ I told them to stand, to fight and they didn’t _._ _”_

“We’re all not like you, Harry,” said Daphne, her voice shaky. “We don’t just go into danger—”

“I don’t too!” I said. “I’m terrified. Ron and Hermione are terrified every time shit like this happens. But we push past that and _fight._ We don’t expect others to fight for us, to put themselves in danger while we run.”

“Get off your high horse, Potter,” Zabini said. “You and Weasley weren’t the only ones fighting there. Who do you think cast the curse that killed that mammoth?”

“I don’t fucking care,” I said. “All I know is that Ron wouldn’t be dead if we’d all stood and fought, if none of us had run. I’m not going to ignore that. I’m not going to fool myself into thinking that taking the risk and looking for the whoever’s out there will help us if we’re attacked by more Inferi.”

“You’d leave them to die?” said Susan.

I didn’t say anything, but the answer I wanted to give was yes.

They’d left Ron to die by running. Why would I risk my life for them when they hadn’t been able to put theirs on the life for my best friend? There was only one person I trusted with my life right now, one person I felt like I could put my life on the line for and that was only Hermione.

Hermione who looked at me with pity, fear, disgust and guilt all mixed into one. Hermione who was biting her lip, who had tears in her eyes, shaking like a leaf, and who was clutching Ron in an iron grip.

“I’m going out to find the others,” said Susan. “Stay here and put up protective enchantments. I’ll find you again with the Protean enchanted rocks.”

“Wait,” said Hermione, her voice still strained.

My stomach dropped. _Please don_ _’t say you’re going out there._

“Harry,” she said and she swallowed. “I think you should go with Susan.”

“I’m not leaving you here,” I said.

“I…I understand that you’re angry,” she said. “But…after this is over, you’re not going to like the decisions you’ve made. You won’t like yourself. I think…it would be for the best if you went with Susan.”

“And you?” I said.

“I’ll be safe here,” she said. “We’ve been able to sleep two nights without being attacked. We haven’t seen Inferi in all that time. We’ll put up protective enchantments and we’ll be fine.”

I really didn’t want to.

 _“Please,_ Harry,” she said.

I swallowed and nodded. “Put up protective enchantments as we leave,” I said. They started at it. Susan and I watched from the outside as the enchantments were put up. With each wave of the wand Hermione left a ripple of light that hid more of the grounds. “Let’s head out.”

We were silent as we started trudging in the direction of the sparks. We waited until we were well away from the campsite before we started shooting our own sparks in the air. The response was almost immediate and as we walked, the sparks steadily got closer.

“You’ll hide when we’re close,” I said. “We’ll make sure this isn’t an enemy first. If it is, maybe you can catch them by surprise.”

Susan looked at me worriedly but she nodded.

We walked to close to an hour before Susan started to pull back, using the cover of trees to hide her from the main path. My wand felt heavy in my hand as I walked, and I was all too aware of Ron’s wand in my pocket. If I was forced to fight more than one wizard then the surprise of a wand they weren’t expecting would help me fight back or escape.

_Helping me even_ _…_

I let the thought drift before it could finish.

More daylight bled away and I had to shift between lighting the tip of my wand and firing sparks in the air. With the night going into full gear the sparks were much brighter when they burst.

Susan pulled back, hiding within the closely clustered trees.

I spotted them, points of light shuffling through the trees. I stopped, wand pointed as they made their approach. My heart hammered and my throat felt dry. I felt the urge to fire a Stunner, maybe hit them before they could react and then confirm if they were friends but there were too many people and I wouldn’t be able to hit all of them.

“Harry?” said Neville’s voice.

A relieved breath left me. They got closer and I could see them. Neville, he wore a broad grin but there was an ugly line that ran from his forehead to his neck. In the group with were Morag MacDougal, whose clothes had been ripped up and her hair was muddy; Millicent Bulstrode, pale faced and pink cheeky, with watery eyes; Malfoy and Goyle who were bruised and beaten; and between the five of them was the Ice Faerie. It was taller than all of them, still wearing its mirror like armour and draped with white hair. It didn’t have a sword. Instead its hands were bound by ice covered chains. It looked at me with eyes that were clouded over, though I could see the shimmer of the blue beneath.

My wand, which had been slacking, suddenly came up.

“What in Merlin’s soggy knickers is going on?” I said, my voice hard. My wand tip was still lit and though I tried my best I couldn’t see those glowing blue eyes on any of them.

“We…sort of used an Unforgivable Curse,” Neville said. He looked down. “It was the only thing that saved my life. _Draco_ is the only reason that thing didn’t tear me a new one.”

My gaze turned to Malfoy who stood so he was at the back of their crowd. He still looking like a pompous tosser, even with everything that’d happened and possibly everything they’d gone through. And even if he’d saved Neville, I still wasn’t feeling so charitable that I’d forget everything else he’d done.

“Are you alone?” said Neville and his expression flickered. “Hermione…”

“She’s fine.” I told him. “She stayed back while I came here. Is that thing safe? The curse will hold?”

“It’s been holding so far,” said Neville. He looked at Malfoy.

_He_ _’s the one who cast the curse, just like the Imperius Curse that was cast on Katie._

“I think I cast it well enough,” Malfoy said. “But that’s why we have the bindings.”

“If they’ll hold with how much they’re crusted over,” said Morag. “I tried to change the intrinsic properties of the metal so the cold wouldn’t affect them as badly as they normally would, but Transfiguration isn’t my speciality.”

“You did fine,” said Neville, giving her a smile. “If it wasn’t for you too, I’d be dead.”

“Just a simple spell to close the cut,” said Morag. She blushed. “Anyway you’ve still lost some blood. You shouldn’t be moving around so much.”

“I’ll lead you back to our campsite,” I said. I turned and walked away.

“So what’ve you been doing the last few days?” Neville asked. He jogged a little to catch up with me then kept at my side. Susan hadn’t shown herself yet, which was worrying. I stopped. “Harry? What’s going on?”

“Susan?” I said, wand up and my heart beating faster. The tip of my wand was alight but the light hit the trees and caused dark shadows. I started forward and stopped as Susan’s wand light.

“Merlin be damned,” she said. “Now if they’re Death Eaters they know I’m here. No more surprise.”

“Human-Revealment charms exist,” said Morag. “If it was anyone older, they would know them.”

“Not everyone knows _every_ spell,” Draco muttered. He stopped when we all turned to him. “A lot of wizards these days don’t know a lot but the most basic magic.”

“Even the Death Eaters?” I asked, bitterness finding my voice.

“Harry, don’t,” said Neville. “We’re all in this together whether we like it or not. Being on Draco’s case isn’t helping anything.”

“Unless this is all his fault,” I muttered. “He’s been doing something for Voldemort all year—” Malfoy opened his mouth, “—deny it all you want, I _know._ I know that Katie had an Imperius Curse put on her and, isn’t that handy, but you can cast one pretty well. _”_

“I’m not going to put up with this,” Malfoy said.

“You leave and those things’ll be after you,” said Goyle.

Malfoy froze.

“You were attacked again?” Susan asked.

“We think they’re following this thing,” said Morag. “Draco doesn’t know the Imperius Curse well enough to be able to give it better control. We can’t tell it to stop calling them or whatever it’s doing.”

“Why haven’t you tried to kill it?” I asked.

“Tried and couldn’t,” Goyle muttered. “A whole lot of curses and they did nothin’. Tried to set the bloody thing on fire and it didn’t take.”

“It’s resistant to magic,” said Morag. “At least some forms of magic. I think it may have the same magical resistance that trolls or giants have.”

“And what sort of resistance is that?” asked Susan.

“Minor hexes and jinxes don’t work on them,” she said. “It takes heavy hitting curse and other dark magic. Trolls also have unique weaknesses, they turn to stone in sunlight.”

“Do these have the same weakness?”

Morag shrugged.

“Can we _move_ already,” said Millicent. “It’s fucking cold out here and if we don’t have enchantments up they could catch us unawares.”

I nodded and we started walking again. I kept my distance from the Ice Faerie, though my eye kept going back to it. Each of the thing’s movement sent a hiss into the air, the sound of ice sliding against ice. The thing kept looking around, its bright blue eyes taking us in.

“Can it talk?” Susan asked.

“Not human speech,” said Morag. “It sounds like ice splitting.”

“Who you with?” Goyle asked. “Is Vinnie there?”

“Crabbe?” said Susan. Goyle nodded. She shook her head. “Blaise and Daphne are there though. They’re the only people from your house we’ve come across.”

He frowned, his hand closing tightly around his wand. Malfoy looked ahead, his expression sombre.

We crossed a tight cluster of trees and went into sparser grounds. I pulled out my rock and tapped it. A low light appeared in the distance and we started to move towards it.

“Fuckin’ hell!” said Kevin. He stumbled back, remembered to bring up his wand and disappeared before he cast a spell.

I walked to the spot he’d disappeared through and stepped into the sight. The light was brighter and the smell of food hit the air. Hermione, Daphne and Zabini were on their feet, their wands raised as I came through.

Neville followed after me and Hermione’s eyes watered. She stumbled forward and gave him a hug. Neville hissed.

“Still have some ribs mending,” he muttered.

“Oh. Sorry. Sorry,” said Hermione. “Just that I heard…Well, that you were dead.”

“Merlin,” I heard Millicent said, her eyes on our classmates who hovered on the floor, with the Full-Body Bind over them. “Why are they here?”

“So we can take their bodies back to their parents,” said Daphne.

“Draco hit that _thing_ with a spell before it could finish me off,” said Neville. “Him and Goyle dragged me away from the fighting ‘til we found Morag who healed me.”

The Ice Faerie was the last. It had to bend to get in because only a portion of the protective enchantments had been removed. At its full height, the thing still hit the enchantments.

“Merlin,” I heard and not from one person. The others collectively stepped back.

“How is that here?” Zabini asked.

 _“Why_ is that here?” Daphne said.

“Draco caught it with the Imperius Curse,” said Neville. “We don’t know how to kill it so we thought it was better if we had it than letting it loose.”

“But we’ll have to prepare for an attack,” I said.

“Merlin’s knickers,” said Kevin.

***

_“Defodio.”_

The spell left my wand with a thump. It hit the ground and caused a deep indentation, pushing out dirt at either side. Every second I pointed the trench got deeper. I wasn’t the only one working. After a quick bite, finishing off the rest of our food, most of us had started building trenches around our secondary shields.

Our defences were had three tiers, the first was a three-layered shield membrane followed by a deep trench filled with conjured metal spikes; another set of shields and another trench, one we were still building, and another triple layer of shields.

Zabini was with Malfoy and Goyle, the three of them on the other side of the grounds digging the trench. Millicent, Daphne and Kevin were dropping branches into trench, and Hermione and Morag were in the central shields with the Ice Faerie. Neville and Susan were a bit behind me, with the former digging the trench deeper while the latter vanished the dirt we were pushing away.

“Haven’t you seen any of the others?” said Susan.

Neville shook his head. “I was out of it for a while. Greg mostly hovered me around.”

“Maybe with our growing numbers we’ll be able to go back in earnest,” said Susan. “Look for the others. Maybe they found people.”

Neville frowned, his eyes going watery. “It’s _bad_ out there,” he said. “I’m sure that I saw some people that were from our year, but we didn’t have the idea of binding them and bringing them with us. Merlin knows how…how many we burned,” he said, his voice shaking.

“It’s not your fault,” I said. “This whole thing is bigger than us. No one can blame us for what it’s forced us to do.”

 _Hypocrite,_ a part of me said and I could see that reflected in Susan’s eyes. I swallowed and looked away from them, focusing on building the trench.

It took a good hour before we finished building the trench, and then Zabini started the work to set a Fire Spell that would only come alight if the Inferi came close.

“You sure this’ll work?” said Kevin.

“I was bored one summer and decided to enchant our fireplace instead of using a Warming Charm,” he said. “This’ll work.”

We went into the central site, closing off the door we’d made for ourselves. I was hit immediately by cold.

The Ice Faerie stood at the centre of the site, bound entirely in metal chains that were crusted with ice, and a circle of fire surrounding it. Hermione and Morag stood a bit away, talking under their breath. They stopped as we got in and closed off the last of the shields.

“Did you figure out anything new?” Neville asked. His voice sounded too upbeat, but maybe he was doing that to make himself feel better.

“Its magic is wrapped around cold,” said Hermione. She sounded better, more focused. “The fire around it winks out after a few minutes and it takes longer before it undoes our Warming Charms.”

“There was that storm,” said Morag. “The one that broke our shields and the sword. We just don’t know if the sword was something it made with magic, or if it was just a shard of ice it reinforced with magic.”

“Is that important?” Malfoy asked. I glared at him, even though I had the same question.

“We’re filling in the information we have, trying to make sense of all this,” she said. “In knowing its strength, we might know its weaknesses.”

“Killing Curse would snuff it,” said Goyle. He and his group were standing as far apart as they could to Hermione. As he spoke, he wasn’t even looking at her. “It’d be good if any of us could cast it.”

I wasn’t surprised that the others looked at Malfoy expectantly, but it hurt when they looked at me. But a deeper part of me understood. I’d cursed Malfoy with the Cruciatus Curse. I’d been angry and a part of me regretted that, but I’d broken a taboo. I could be sent to Azkaban if anyone found out.

“What happens if we set it on fire?” I asked.

“The fire eventually dies,” said Hermione. _“Incendio,”_ she said and the flames flared, becoming a large wall that swirled around the Ice Faerie. The fire roared and fluttered, thick and red, but it started thinning out and eventually disappeared. “Can’t you stop it?” she asked Malfoy. “Maybe it’s active magic.”

“Couldn’t stop it from calling other Inferi, I doubt I can stop it from doing this,” Malfoy muttered, his tone too tart for my liking.

“Let’s try to tend the flames,” said Hermione. “Take shifts until something happens. There’s discomfort in its eyes when there’s fire, it’s just that its magic is stronger than the fire we’re conjuring.”

“Can’t we do that in the morning?” said Kevin. “If we stay awake with this, we’ll be tired if the Inferi attack.”

“He’s right,” said Zabini.

“We can finish things off in the morning,” I said.

“I’ll take first watch,” said Daphne. “I don’t think I can sleep unless I’m dead tired.”

We filled out who would take which watch, I would be fourth, and then split apart into groups. Hermione, Susan and Kevin slept in my cluster, Neville and Morag were their own, and Malfoy, Zabini, Goyle and Millicent were their own. All of us kept our distance from the Ice Faerie.

Sleep didn’t come easy, with my mind plagued by nightmares of a sweeping cold, Voldemort hanging in the distance, with Malfoy standing in front of him, whispering. I woke up a few times, my teeth chattering and a deep chill having settled in me. Most of these times it was because the Warming Charms had broken.

“Storm,” said Kevin. He had watch but I couldn’t sleep anymore. I looked up and saw it, dark swirls of snow moving over the outermost layer of shields. I could hear the deep whistle of the wind as it passed through trees.

“This happened when they attacked,” said Kevin, his voice shaky. He had his wand in his hand but he didn’t find security there.

“We’re more prepared now than before,” I said.

He swallowed. “You think we can hold them back?” he said. “Just…there were more of us last time and it didn’t do any good.”

“We didn’t know what we were fighting last time,” I said.

Kevin sighed and looked down. “It’s…not that we meant to, you know,” he said. I raised a brow. “Meant to run, I mean. Just…everything happened all at once and it was hard to think. I can’t speak for anyone else, but my body just acted on its own. Next thing I knew I was… _away._ _”_

I pressed my mouth together as I felt my stomach stirred. There were a range of emotions and thoughts going through me, most connected to Ron, but others connected to my decision: I’d run during the second battle. It hadn’t been because I was scared, some part of me had been, scared of losing Hermione, but most of me had been pissed and I’d chosen to leave the others instead of standing and fighting.

It was small, but I got a sense of what Hermione had been scared of, that I’d feel horrible when the feelings settled.

I took a deep breath, my eyes stinging. People had died because I’d left them. Malfoy was a git, a hateful git working for Voldemort, but him and Goyle had saved Neville’s life. What did that say?

I swallowed and stayed silent. Kevin did too.

I started practising the Levitation Charm on a rock, doing my best to keep silent as Susan did. It was good meditation, taking enough of my attention away from all the niggling thoughts, that I was a bad person for what I’d done and that the penchant I had for getting into trouble had gotten Ron killed; the thoughts of how Mr and Mrs Weasley would react to the loss of their son, or Ginny, Fred, George, Bill and Charlie. Percy had distanced himself from his family, but how would he react when he found out his brother had died?

Would they blame me and the curse that was being Harry Potter’s friend?

Light flared and I jumped, getting to my feet and pointing my wand.

“Oh no. Oh no. Oh no,” Kevin said. He was on his feet, pale white with his wand held shakily in the same direction.

The first set of shields were bright, a fierce web sprouting from a singular point. The damage spread quickly, hit by a storm that steadily got worse.

“Everyone! Up!” I said and people jumped as if they hadn’t really been asleep. To their feet they went and their wands came out. They looked at me and Kevin, then turned in the direction we were facing.

“Can anyone see what’s there?” said Millicent.

It was too dark and even with the flare of the damage on the shield, there wasn’t enough light to see anything.

Another flare erupted behind us, this one bigger, webs branching out from the impact point.

“Surrounded,” said Zabini.

There were eleven of us in all, which meant five sides, one with three people. But that would be letting myself trust them when I wasn’t so sure.

“Hermione and Malfoy,” I said, his expression was scared but he prepared for the barb, “at my side.”

“What?” he said.

Of everyone here, I didn’t trust him the most. I wanted Malfoy at my side so he wouldn’t curse me in the back. But there was also Kevin to think about, that he would bolt at the first sign of trouble.

“Kevin with Susan,” I said, because they were both from Hufflepuff and I _hoped_ Kevin wouldn’t leave his house mate to run. I trusted Susan to pull up the slack at any rate. “Zabini and Daphne; Goyle with Millicent; Neville with Morag. We’ll face out, backs to each other. Everyone keeps their eyes in their direction and we fire out. No one breaks.”

Another flare and this time I caught the glimmer of something. There were figures in the darkness, more than ten, and they were just standing. The damage was a hole, and from it, there were thicker lines of damage, all spreading out to meet others.

“Remember,” I said. “We use fire or fire curses. Anything else and we’re just biding time.”

“They usually attack only at night,” Neville added. “If we can wait it out until morning, we should be fine.”

“That’s…five, maybe six hours,” said Hermione. “The sun rises earlier here.”

 _Five or six hours when it looks like our first set of shields are already almost gone,_ I thought.

Lines connected, spreading the damage to the point that entire sections of the shield disappeared. The entire thing took ten minutes, but we’d built our shields like an onion, with three layers before they reached the first trench. Again the damage started, but this time there was more thought put into it. Light flared from a point, and then a line started to draw itself out, thick and growing with smaller webs, all at the base of our shield. If they closed the circle, then the shield would be without a base and the entire thing would collapse.

The line, I was sure, was from a sword.

 _“Depulso,”_ I said into the darkness and the line stopped.

“What was that?” said Susan. “Maybe we can help.”

“Same ice sword that we saw from _him,_ _”_ I said, gesturing at the Ice Faerie. “If you see a line then banish it.”

“Without seeing it?” said Kevin. “That’s impossible.”

“Not impossible,” said Hermione. “Just incredibly hard.”

I frowned at that. It wasn’t that hard because it was just the reverse of the Summoning Charm and _that_ could be done without seeing what you were pulling.

 _Hermione_ _’s just trying to make me feel better,_ I thought, even though it didn’t make sense.

 _“Depulso_ sword!” I heard Neville say. I glanced in their direction and I could see a line. Nothing had happened. The line still continued.

 _“Depulso_ sword!” said Morag and her voice was joined by Neville’s before their line finally stopped.

“Are these things particularly fast?” said Hermione.

“Not that I’ve noticed,” said Malfoy.

“No,” said Morag.

“That means there’s at least two out there,” said Hermione. Her voice broke. She swallowed and tried again. “The one whose sword Harry banished would have first had to go and fetch it before rounding on us.”

“There were four points of damage,” said Daphne. “Unless they were throwing them?”

I tuned them out, focusing on watching the damage. It was still spreading out, lines erupting from a central point and moving up. Where they connected in a circular formation the shield gave, letting in wind and snow and fraying the edges so the damage spread faster.

 _“Depulso,”_ said Malfoy, as a line started and it stopped, the damage spreading but doing so slowly.

An idea hit me.

“Get ready to banish. _Accio_!” I said and I felt the tug. I couldn’t hear or see anything, but at points around us beads of light flared. There were five in total, all hitting parts of the shield as they tried to get to us. The incantation for the Banishing Charm erupted and all the swords were sent flying back.

The damage continued to spread but it wasn’t exacerbated. It took a while before it dropped and it was even longer before more points of damage started, not a line, but something thrown against the shield hard enough that damage sprouted. This was slower going than the previous assault.

“How long?” I asked.

“Almost an hour,” said Hermione.

“Let’s take shifts,” I said. “Make sure we’re not too tired if they get through.”

I was on the first shift with Hermione and Malfoy, which was largely silent. Malfoy had his eyes on our Inferi classmates, Hermione had her hand around Ron and I split my attention between the Ice Faerie and Malfoy.

“Is this Voldemort?” I asked.

Hermione and Malfoy stopped at my words. We’d been silent so long that the words were startling.

Malfoy sat up. “Is this why you wanted me here, Potter?” he said, as haughty as ever. “So you can interrogate me?”

“I know you were doing something for Voldemort,” I said, no heat or volume to my voice. The others were sleeping and I didn’t want to wake them. “No matter how much you deny it. But _this_ _…”_ I swallowed. “Did you do this?”

Malfoy gave me a long look. I didn’t break the gaze.

“I don’t know,” he said and I believed him.

***

Belief wasn’t trust and it wasn’t absolution. Malfoy was a bigot that worked for Voldemort and he was the reason Katie had been cursed twice over. But right now, he’d narrowed things down. There were two options: either Voldemort had done this without Malfoy, which was hard because he would have had to get into Hogwarts to pull off magic this powerful—then again there was still Snape; or it was something else.

And by Merlin, I didn’t know which was more worrying.

The last shield fell. The Inferi rushed in and fell into the trench. They had numbers and through that, they must have filled the trench because I saw the sparks of light that flared when they bashed into the secondary layer. But they didn’t damage it. Their swords and clambering limbs weren’t strong enough.

The shield flared as objects were thrown against it. Unlike last time, the Ice Faeries weren’t as patient, they kept up the onslaught of throws to make sure the damage spread faster. But it was nowhere near to efficiency of the swords and it meant my group could sleep while another kept watch.

It wouldn’t have been easy any other time, except that I was dead-tired and sleep claimed me when I wasn’t expecting it.

It felt like a blink before I was jostled awake. When I came to, everyone was looking at me strangely.

“What?” I said.

“You were speaking Parseltongue,” said Hermione. She looked worried. She was the only one here who knew of my connection to Voldemort, and that was its own sort of worry when I thought about it. I hadn’t felt anything with the connection in a while and now I’d gone back to speaking in my sleep.

I tried to remember anything from his mind, maybe I’d slipped in without meaning to, but my dreams were filled with snow and wind.

I ignored the gazes of the others to look at the damage on the secondary shields. There was so much red light glowing that I could see beyond, see the shadowy figures of the Inferi with their bright blue, see that they’d filled in the ditch with their bulk and that there were a few Ice Faeries in the darkness, looking not at us, but at one of their own.

“It’s almost done,” said Neville. “The last shield before the fire pit.”

“Trench,” said Morag. “Pits are holes.” 

The shield snapped from a sudden impact and fire erupted, so bright I became momentarily blind. It took a few moments before my eyes adjusted and I could see the army. There were Inferi in every direction, some in better condition than others; there was another giant with its elephant but it was ablaze, it had been the one to break the shield and it’d caught some of the fire; and there were five Ice Faeries. Four of them were on dead horses, nothing by tight skin over bones, and the last on a giant white spider.

“Wind’s going to put out the fires,” said Susan and already I could see it. The snapping of the shield had allowed the snowstorm to sweep over the trench and as more time passed, the fire started to subside.

“Prepare to fight,” I said. My throat was dry, my heart beating heavily against my chest and even with the Warming Charms again having been dispelled, I was drenched with sweat.

“Protect us,” Malfoy said to the Ice Faerie and that was the wrong move. The thing moved, chains shattering as it threw its arm at Malfoy. That was the only thing that saved him, that moment when the Ice Faerie had to exert strength on the chains.

 _“Flipendo!”_ said Susan. Malfoy was taken off his feet, sent tumbling on the ground.

The Ice Faerie dashed towards Malfoy—“Stop!”—before it quickly slid to a stop. Malfoy’s eyes were wide, his face red and his breathing harsh.

“What just happened?” said Millicent.

“I…I don’t know,” said Malfoy.

“I thought you were controlling it, Malfoy,” said Kevin, angry and scared both.

“I _was!_ I am!” said Malfoy. “I don’t know why this happened, okay? I don’t know who you think I am, but I don’t regularly cast Imperius Curses.”

“That you can says a lot,” said Kevin.

“An’ what about ‘im?” said Goyle. “We forgettin’ ‘e can cast the Cruciatus?”

“Fighting isn’t helping us,” said Daphne.

“We need to run,” said Millicent. “How long’s it been? Two? Three hours?”

“Four,” said Hermione.

“We won’t survive anymore.”

And all through it the fire continued to dim.

“Silence!” I said, so much heat finding my voice that my wand sparked. “We’re already surrounded. There’s nothing we can do now but fight.”

“But how can we fight them?” said Kevin. “There’s more of them than us. Even with flame spells, there’s the storm and that’ll blow the fires out.”

 _I don_ _’t know,_ I thought. It suddenly hit me that a smarter solution could have been sending the Ice Faerie away. The Inferi were following _it_ after all and if it was away then they would go away. But then we hadn’t been expecting more Ice Faeries either. If it had only been the Inferi then our shields would have kept them away.

“Malfoy,” I said. “Do you think you can cast more Imperius Curses?”

He nodded.

I nodded too. “Then that’s the plan. We clear away as many Inferi as we can and we catch the Ice Faeries with an Imperius. We still won’t know how to kill them, but that leaves only the Inferi and they’re better to deal with.”

 _I could also cast the Cruciatus Curse,_ I thought but how would Neville handle that? Would it be too close to what had happened to his parents?

 _You shouldn_ _’t be caring about all this,_ another part of me whispered. _You should be caring about survival._

The fire died, but there was still a trench. The Inferi moved in to try and fill up the trench but that gave the fire new life. The sound of ice breaking joined the air and the Inferi stopped. The wind continued to howl.

“Granger,” Malfoy said. “Undo the Quieting Charm.”

“Why? What are you going to do?” Hermione asked.

“Just do it,” Malfoy snapped. My hand closed tightly against my wand. Hermione didn’t move. Morag was the one who started to undo the work. “Keep calling them. The Inferi.”

“I thought you couldn’t control that,” said Morag.

“I can’t make it _stop_ call them,” said Malfoy. “Maybe I can use that against it.” 

The Ice Faerie screeched and the Inferi through themselves forward, giving the fire more fuel. The Ice Faerie continued to screech, a long, harrowing sound. The Inferi caught fire quickly and they burned with the same ease. The fire grew, showing us the five who still watched us.

“Make it stop,” said Zabini. “It’s called them. It could be sending a message.”

“Stop,” said Malfoy.

The Ice Faerie on the spider screeched and then waited. It screeched again and waited. Nothing happened. The Inferi kept throwing themselves on our trench.

The Ice Faerie screeched again, lower this time, all five of them turned away, disappearing into the storm.

The Inferi continued throw themselves into the fire, left by their masters. I couldn’t believe that they weren’t hiding. It felt like they’d pop out at any moment with their swords ready to bash the last of our shields but they didn’t.

The storm subsided. The Inferi horde disappeared, consumed by fire. Morning came and finally I let myself breathe.


End file.
